


not one more

by snoozyfern



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: F/M, ME2 spoilers, Mass Effect 2, set during the suicide mission
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-14
Updated: 2015-06-14
Packaged: 2018-04-04 07:18:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4129470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snoozyfern/pseuds/snoozyfern
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>you wanted to have everyone get out alive. but there are casualties in every war that you just can't control.</p>
            </blockquote>





	not one more

“Not. One. More.”

The cold floor rushes up beneath you as the butt of your assault rifle kicks against your shoulder. You are rapid-firing against the Blood Pack, when suddenly you are being pushed down to the ground by your teammate Tali, commanding her combat drone in the distance. “Get down, Shepard!” she screams at you as she shoves you behind cover. The Blood Pack were advancing on you, and fast. You and your team were trying to hold your ground, but they were hitting you too fast and too hard, and you were forced to fall back. You turn your attention to the clankering doors behind you.  
“Jacob, get that fucking door open!” you yell over the comm at your teammate on the other side of the steel barricades.  
“I’m trying, Commander, but this thing is shut tight! We’re overriding the locks as fast as we can, just keep holding them off.” Jacob replies, fiddling with the lock system. You roll your eyes with a sigh, before standing up from behind cover and taking out a few more Blood Pack troopers, blood spurting from their heads as they collapse.  
“Go for the optics, Chatika, _go for the optics_.” Tali growls to her drone as the purple orb advances through the pack. You duck behind cover as a rocket flies overhead, and you resurface to watch Samara fling the boom trooper off a ledge with her biotics. She smirks slightly, before turning her focus to another Blood Pack member. You grin in response, and she notices, giving you a curt nod. You hear a growl, and time slows down as a trooper appears behind her; the implications begin to dawn on you. You line up the trooper’s head in your sights, pull the trigger and- _click_ - _click._  
  
_**Fuck.**_

“Samara, behind you!” you warn, just before Samara takes a knife to the back. Purple liquid oozes from her back as she falls from the ledge, slamming onto the floor next to you, blood splattering around her.  
“Shit.” You hiss, rushing to hold her shoulder and roll her over. Her eyes, glazed over, stare into your soul as her head lolls over onto the floor. You release a breath, moving a hand over her face to close her eyes.  
“Shepard Commander, the door is nearly open. Make your way over to the door at the soonest oppurtunity.” Legion informs you over the comm.  
You nod. “Copy that.” You pull yourself up, and motion Tali to follow you. She nods, and stays on your tail.  
“Everyone to the door now!!” you holler at your teammates, running for the door with Tali in tow. Your team perks up, one by one, and they all follow you under cover. You all make it to the door, Blood Pack on your heels.  
“ _JACOB OPEN THE DOOR!!!_ ” you scream through the comm, and as if on cue, the doors creak open. You stand at the opening, making sure everyone behind you gets through first. They all rush through, except for a few slowly stepping backwards and firing into the swarm, watching their backs. They make it through, and then you rush through the doors, slamming your back into cover.  
“Shepard!” you hear a familiar voice call, and you look up to see a familiar turian through the crossfire.  
“Garrus!” you respond, your eyes lighting up with hope. You hold your gaze for a moment, before you blink back into reality. “Help me get these doors closed!” you ask, and he nods.  
  
You fix your hands into the ridge of the massive sliding doors, and you push. Garrus does the same with the other door, and you put your full weight on the heavy barricades. Thane slips in behind you, silent as water, and helps you push. You silently thank him, as your arms are already a little shaken and weak after handling your rifle. Grunt is shoving the door with Garrus on the other side, but the doors don’t seem to want to budge much further. You move ahead of Thane, to pull the door instead of push, and Garrus follows suit. Tali was still firing through the doors before you two moved, so she edged out of the way so not to hit you both.  
“Come on, god dammit.” You growl through your teeth, your arms shuddering with the strain. Garrus peers through the gap in the door, just in time to see a trooper load his rifle, and steady its aim. The Blood Pack was still far behind, but their aim was true. One fired a single sniper shot, and before you could react, Garrus shoved you aside to push the two doors together. You see the doors close after you hear the bang, and Garrus flies backwards into the opposite wall with a pained grunt. Your heart tells you that the turian just flew out of the way to avoid being shot, but the blue blood dribbling out from his abdomen tells a very different story, and your gut clenches. He clutches it with his hands as he drops to his knees, and you are immediately up and running closer to him now that the danger has passed. “ _Garrus!_ ” You catch him as he falls; supporting him across his back with his face nestled into the crook of your arm. “Hey, hey… listen, hang on, okay?” you ask softly. He gurgles out a laboured breath, and you remember back to Omega, when you discovered he was Archangel.  
  
When he was shot, he flew to the floor like a glass bottle, shattering as the blood sprayed across the floor. When you made it to him, you had held him in very much the same way as you are now, your thumb tracing circles into his left mandible. In hushed tones, you told him he would be okay and that, no matter how much pain he was in now, he would walk away and that he was safe. He shivered and gurgled his responses, before you turned his head to let the blood spill out of his mouth. That day, you didn’t wear your helmet, so you pressed your lips to his forehead in the hopes of soothing his pain. He wrapped his fingers around your hand, and for a golden moment, you know he would be okay. You could hear Mordin’s prognosis in the distance, but he was faint, as you were too lost in watching Garrus for any sign of losing him to pay much attention to anything else. His cold eyes fixed on you, chest heaving with the strain.

The similarity of the situation is painful, but reason tells you that Garrus is hurt, _bad_. You grip his hand hard, before whipping your head around to your team mates.  
“I need some medi-gel over here, _right now._ ” You tell them, panic set into your voice hard as steel. Thane’s expression drops, and he takes a deep breath. “We used the last of it on Dr. Chakwas and the crew. I’m sorry, Shepard.” _No. Not like this, god **dammit**. _ You turn your attention back to Garrus. “We’ll do it the old fashioned way then.” You grumble, pressing his hand onto the bullet wound with yours. He replies with a pained whine that makes your stomach drop, and you squeeze his shoulder reassuringly. Blood spills out of the wound and onto your thigh, and the warmth of it startles you.  
“Shepard…” the turian says, and _fuck_. You have only ever heard his voice to be loud and proud, making some cocky remark or cracking wise at the others. Never this quiet. Never this...  _helpless_.  
“What is it, big guy?” you ask quietly, pulling him a little closer.  
“I don’t think I’m going to be departing to the Normandy with you after this.” He admits, and you can’t bear to hear Garrus admit defeat. It numbs you to your core, as you nod without really processing it.  
“Snipe one for me, would you?” he adds, and there’s a faint whisper of that cocky smirk, before the life leaves him like a gust of wind, and his head rolls back into the collar of his bloody suit.

You know you have failed as the wail escapes from your lips, and Tali buries her face in her hands.

**Author's Note:**

> in which fern weeps about their fave and overuses the italics


End file.
